Community web site

We assume that you must have noticed the dramatic increase in air traffic over Brightling. This isn’t the result of your imagination, nor is it the result of it having been hot and perhaps we have all been outside more. This is the result of government policy to avoid flying over townships. We are also assuming that this policy is based on the fact that towns have more people in them to annoy. However, what the government fail to realise is that in towns there is a lot of background noise which swallows up most of this disturbance, whereas in the country and, particularly here in Brightling where background noise is almost nil, it really shows up and disrupts not only our lives, but also spoils it for all the visitors to the area who come to enjoy the follies, walking, riding and cycling. You only have to speak to some who often mention the surprise they feel that this should be allowed in our AONB. Brightling has always been tolerant to this sort of disturbance in the past and, because of this, I think we may be suffering the consequences. If you feel strongly enough about the matter, there are some letters you could write which would help to highlight our distress and make people aware that, in fact, Brightling is noticing the result of government policy. You can write to

Rt.Hon. Chris Grayling, M.P., Secretary of State for Transport, Grate Minster House, 33 Horseferry Road, London SW1P 4DR and The Baroness Sugg CBE, House of Lords, London SW1A 0PW I was told she is Minister for Aviation, but she is listed on her web site as undersecretary for Transport, so not sure. Points you could make:

We are an AONB where we are controlled on development and light pollution, yet flying with all its noise disturbance and, as important, additional pollution, is permitted. It spoils it not only for residents, but also the many visitors who come to enjoy the supposed peace and quiet, for walking, riding and cycling.

Night flights were supposed to have been reduced but, in fact, permission has been given for 11,200 night flights this summer, equating to roughly 60 per night between 11.30 p.m. and 6 a.m.

Airbus, whose air conditioning causes an irritating and disturbing whine was told they could not use Gatwick after the end of 2017 unless they made the (known about) changes to quieten their noise. They are still flying over us with their distinctive whine.

Gatwick is basically a leisure airport which means that the flights are mainly taken by people spending UK money overseas and paying no fuel tax nor VAT. Passenger duty only returns about one quarter of what we would receive if fuel tax and VAT was paid.

One pro-airport Official who shall remain nameless one remarked that he could not see why this aircraft noise should be a problem as surely the area is noisy from working tractors and mooing cows.

Only you know how you truly feel about this invasion of our space and we are sure you can put your hearts into composing something relevant.

Do please share the news about the new web site here at brightling.community It doesn’t seem to be showing up in web searches yet but I think that that will probably improve over time, particularly if we continue to put good quality content up there.

Over the next month I will be calling a meeting of interested people to work out how we can ensure that the new web site really does become a focal point for the community – a vibrant and active place that Brightlingers go to when they want to find out what’s on, and to contribute their own information: the parish pump for the internet age. If you would like to take part in this meeting, do contact me – you can leave a reply in the box below.

You can also become a “follower” of the parish blog – just click on the “Follow” button. Then you’ll get an email whenever there is a new post. At the time of writing there are 3 followers – hopefully we will see many more in the future!

Another thing you can do is to add comments of your own to any page on the site. Just use the “Leave a reply” box.

Incidentally, whenever I search for Brightling, Google asks me “Did you mean: breitling”, which is beginning to make me think that the easiest thing might be to change the spelling of the village’s name, (recalling the Viz Top Tip: “Save money on expensive personalised car number plates by simply changing your name to match your existing plate – Mr KVL 741Y”)

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